


Resolutions (or a Posie endgame)

by Sylmaril



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Lizzie and Penelope are besties frenemies, Penelope AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2020-05-13 21:26:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19259473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylmaril/pseuds/Sylmaril
Summary: Set after the season 1 finale. Josie and Lizzie are on good terms and Josie is trying to be her own separate person, so she is facing Penelope's absence alone... because everybody forgot about Hope (for the moment).So when Hope's void is filled by an unexpected magical loophole, Lizzie finds herself teaming up with none other than Penelope to set things straight. But something's off, so... can she tell Josie?Jinnie is also forced to pay a visit. AU references and characters included.ORI'm crap at summaries, but let's take the canon wheel from where the writers left it and steer it into Posie endgame. So big FUCK U to Belgium and showrunners, I’m using your own weapons against you.(The improper use of Belgium is to blame, not Belgium itself of course. Love to all the Belgians out there <3 )





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always fear show writers will muck things up when they create something beautiful but are surprised at their own result. It means they don't actually understand it, or simply are not interested in pursuing it, because it doesn't fit their initial "bigger picture".  
> That's why I've been fantasising about a follow-up to the story where the main goal is actually a Posie endgame before getting on with season 2.  
> So I decided to write down said fantasies and then... why not make it into a fanfic?
> 
> I am not a writer and English is not my first language, so just read it in pure Posie spirit.
> 
> Oh, and last but not least, I also felt robbed by the AU episode... so good, but so many possibilities left unspoken...

_Pen…_

_I should’ve told you how I felt. I wore my heart on my sleeve, but my thoughts were my own, and my actions told another tale._  
_I refused you, I told you to go away, I told you to leave me alone. And now I am left here in my loneliness. I ache for you. I miss you. I always thought you would be here with me. But now you are gone and I am lost._  
_I wish I told you all these things that night. But I couldn’t. I knew I had lost you and I still could not fight for us. To be fair your act was too good, and part of me will always regret that I was not able to stand up for myself before, while another will always be angry that you took the decision for me and not with me.  
_ _Now I just want you to know that you’re in my every breath, you always were._

Josie is staring at the half-written letter in front of her... She had started writing it right after Penelope left.  
It actually went on, and on, but all the words seemed wrong after that last sentence, and she had just scratched them out, she had tried to re-write them only to cancel them again… until the ink was too blurred by the tears and she had to stop because she felt like she could not breathe anymore.

To think that it was less than a week ago.

Now it feels like a life ago. And maybe it is. 

Her brief encounter with death, during Triad attack, definitely let her gain perspective, it brought her heart and her brain on the same page. A fresh page.  
A strange sense of finality has settled inside her. There is no more time for crying, sitting around waiting, and be dependent on others. Life goes on, isn’t it? But that is exactly the problem. Now she knows her life has an early expiration date.  
So her new focus is making sure she gets to have a life.  
The timer was set the moment she and her sister were born. And now it said six years. Her only certainty in all this mess.  
When she thinks about her 22nd birthday she is actually not scared, she sees it as her goal. Once she passes it she will finally be free.  
Be free to pursue her dreams, to fend for herself and taste life at its fullest. In her future she still sees daunting green eyes smirking at her.  
But she also knows six years are a long time to ask someone to wait for you. 

So she sighs, gathers what’s left of her pain, and puts it on hold.  
Past, present and future are just one big whirling bubble. She knows for a fact that she will see Penelope again. At least one time. On that she’s adamant. Can you feel nostalgia for something that has not happened yet? 

And as if she’s someone else she sees herself pick up the pen.

_I don’t know what will happen next, but of one thing I’m sure, this is not how it ends… there is still one chapter left and whether it will be an epilogue or not, only time will tell.  
_ _So mark my words and save the date, whatever happens in-between, in six years-time I expect you to come and collect the dance I still owe you, because I have every intention of sticking around. And not only me, the whole twin-set package. So don’t you dare miss that party._

_Love, Josie._

She puts down the pen. She feels strangely empty. But it’s sort of a good emptiness.  
It’s like someone cut the power to a rave party, and in that awkward silence she can finally hear her own thoughts again.  
But not all the noise has disappeared, there is still that tiny whistle that refuses to leave her ears and reminds her of all the decibels. 

Her gaze wanders on the empty walls and shelves of Penelope’s room, and she finds herself staring outside the window, lost in thought. For a moment she thinks she sees a flash or something coming from the woods. But maybe it’s her mind playing tricks on her.

It’s very late, and it is past time she went back to her room to catch some sleep.

* * *

Somewhere in the woods surrounding the Salvatore school a struggle is taking place.  
A flash of light. A gunshot. The sound of a man falling to the ground.  
Penelope feels a heavy pain in her abdomen. Her hand is still outstretched from the last enchantment she threw at him, she lowers it and presses it to her side, when she brings it back up to her eyes, it’s slick and wet with blood. That bastard got her good _._  
Well if she can’t have Josie it is only right she exits the scenes.  
She realizes she is not one bit scared. This isn’t how she expected to kick it, but she actually doesn’t care anymore.  
Her only regret is not having taken out more of those Triad bastards with her. Well… not her only regret. Let’s say her last one.  
Maybe she can still do something about it.  
In the distance she sees someone running towards her, she should prepare a counterattack spell.  
But her vision blurs, she can’t see if it’s friend or foe and the ground is finally rushing up to meet her.  
_I’m coming Jojo. Did you miss me?_

* * *

MG was just going to the old mill to clear his thoughts. He had not heard from his mother since they last spoke with each other after the attack on the school.  
He really hoped she would reconsider hers and Triad’s position towards the supernatural creatures.  
He was deciding whether to give her a call or not, when suddenly he hears a commotion in the distance, and then a gun shot.

All his vamp senses goes on alert-mode, and he is running through the woods to the source of the noises.  
All seems quiet now, but he can smell gunpowder and blood.  
When he nears a clearing, a very disturbing sight presents itself before his eyes.  
A man in full assault gear is sprawled on the ground, unconscious (or something worst, judging from the bruises on the side of his head).  
_Why the fuck did I rush here without letting anyone now where I was?_  
The guy on the ground looks exactly like a Triad soldier. He starts to panic. _Wait, what’s that on his arm? That is definitely a Triad logo… Holy shit, are they surrounding the school again? Was my mom behind it? I have to tell the others._  
He is about to take his phone out of his pocket when the Triad guy just… disappears. As in “dissolve”. Puf, smoke and then nothing. _He “dusted away” maybe? It's like friggin’ Thanos just snapped his fingers._  
_Damn. Did Thanos just snapped his fingers?_  
He lifts up his hands, they are still there, they’re not turning into dust. He is not turning into dust.  
He looks around and listens intently, trying to understand if this is some sort of trap.  
But just when he thinks he imagined it all, he hears the sound of a body falling to the ground not far to his left. 

He approaches very carefully.  
The figure on the ground definitely hasn’t the appearance of a Triad soldier.  
A long coat covers most of the body, the face is half-hidden by raven-black hair. There’s something familiar about it, but also something odd. He takes one more step and finally it dawns on him.  
The girl bleeding to death on the ground is Penelope Park. _What the fuck?  
_

* * *

“Oh, my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. What the hell happened? Peez, can you hear me?”  
She is not responding, so he tries to maintain a semblance of calm and turns her delicately over. Her face is so pale and her heartbeat is getting feebler by the second.  
His mind can barely register how “out-of-character” she looks, but he just puts the thought aside as he bites his wrist and lifts her head to make her drink some of his blood.  
Only after hearing her breathing and heartbeat stabilize, he studies her a little more closely.  
She looks thinner, sort of unkempt, as if she hadn’t slept or changed clothes in a couple of days. _What the hell is happening? Was she camped in the forest this whole time? Why would she do that? Why didn’t she reveal herself after we kicked Triad’s ass?_ Too many questions.  
He leans in and wipes a few droplets of blood he spilled on the side of her mouth. There are leaves in her hair, a healing scratch on her left cheek and even some dirt on one side of her face, she must have run through the woods and even rolled on the ground at some point.  
He cleans her face best as he can trying to say comforting words to his friend (and also trying to convince himself): “Don’t worry, Peez, everything is going to be fine”. 

The fact that Penelope is not regaining consciousness, even if her conditions seems stable, is starting to worry him.  
So he scoops her up, checks quickly around to see if there are other surprises, and when he is sure that there is nothing else in the woods a part from the two of them, he turns and runs as fast as he can back to the school. 

It’s quite late and when he enters the school grounds he can see most of the building lights are out. He runs straight for the infirmary. But when he enters it he is surprised to find a very focused Lizzie, who is doing what looks like yoga or some breathing exercise.  
“Lizzie, what are you doing here? Where’s the nurse? Help me! Penelope is hurt”.  
Lizzie opens her eyes startled and sees MG standing in the middle of the infirmary with what looks like Penelope in his arms… well, what looks like Penelope’s clone, who must have been doing her shopping at the Salvation Army clothes distribution centre.  
Putting that weird thought aside, she jumps up, and immediately helps him putting her on a bed.  
“I was practicing some exercises Ms Tig and the nurse left me after me and Josie found out about the… well, never mind.” Lizzie sees the blood stains all over Penelope's front.  
“OMG, what happened? I thought she was in Belgium already. Where did you find her? What’s wrong with her?”  
“I don’t know, I was out for a walk when I heard a gunshot and saw something really weird in the forest. There was a Triad soldier stunned on the ground, but he sort of evaporated. And Penelope was a few feet away bleeding to death”.  
“What?!”  
“I already gave her my blood. So the wound stopped bleeding, but she is still unconscious”.  
Lizzie opens the coat and lifts the bloody sweater to reveal Penelope abdomen and to assess the wound. It looks perfectly healed. She cleans the blood with a small towel and then checks her figure.  
“Yeah, the wound healed, maybe the bullet is still inside though... What do you mean the soldier disappeared?”  
“He just snapped out of existence. I was starting to think I just hallucinated him when I saw Peez like this”.  
Lizzie frowns.  
Penelope looks like she ran a 12-hour marathon in the woods. Even though MG’s blood healed her, she definitely looks like she had seen better days. It’s looking at her face that Lizzie notices something is off.  
“Wait, what is that on her neck?”  
“There was some dirt on her face, I think she spent some time in those woods hiding out or something”.  
“No, I don’t mean that. What’s that sign on her neck?”  
“I didn’t bite her, if that’ what you’re asking!”  
“Don’t be stupid!”  
Lizzie’s eyes narrow… suddenly she is very vigil.  
“The clothes are wrong”.  
“What?”  
“The clothes are wrong, the hair is wrong… Maybe the Triad man… This could be a trap!”  
“Lizzie, you’re not making any sense!”  
“Tell me exactly where did you find her and what was she doing there?”  
“I don’t know, I heard a noise and she was just there. We should call the nurse or your father. Why are you wasting time?”   
Lizzie looks MG in the eyes and simply says: “Because this is not Penelope.”  
And it’s when she removes the towel, after cleaning the dirt that covered her neck, that he notices the elegant lines of what is clearly a tattoo on one side of her neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it! :)  
> I have most of the plot planned out, just need to stop second guessing every word and speed up the writing process!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys! This chapter got a little bit too long, and I splitted it in two... so next update should be faster. I'm still putting a few things in place before hitting the action button, so bear with me just for a little while. Hope you enjoy!

“What’s that supposed to mean?”  
“She’s not Penelope, don’t ask me how I know. I just know it’s not her”.  
MG just laugh, but under Lizzie’s serious look is a little taken aback…  
“Lizzie, I know the circumstances are crazy, but a tattoo on the neck is the least of our problems… this is clearly Penelope and we need to help her.”  
“We will help her, don’t worry, but we should put her somewhere… safe, for us I mean, now that she is still unconscious. Just as a precaution. C’mon help me move her”.  
“Wait, wait, if the bullet is still inside, I don’t think moving her is a good idea. I already dragged her here from the forest!”  
“If she was shot by the same bullet that hit Josie... Vampire blood won’t do the trick. But it’s definitely curable. Don’t worry about it. Now help me move her”.  
MG scoffs and picks Penelope up again following Lizzie.  
“Where’s the nurse? Where’s your dad? Where’s everybody?”.  
Lizzie answers him matter-of-factly while she tosses away the bloody towel and gathers some supplies from the cabinet.  
“My dad accompanied Ms. Tig to the airport, Dorian is looking for Raf, and the nurse went to Triad’s facility trying to find a way to reverse Burr from statue to human… as per your mother request. I only hope I get to kick his ass properly for what he did to Josie.”  
“They all left the school? So if there was another attack, we would be on our own again?”  
“My dad will be back in a few hours, and Ms. Tig made sure only students could enter the school grounds, so there’s nothing to worry about.”  
“Ok, you said it yourself, only a student can enter, so this is Penelope then.”  
Lizzie looks straight at him again.  
“Yeah, but something’s off, I told you. I don’t know how I know it… but she’s trouble. It’s a fake Penelope”.  
MG looks nervously at her, not sure they’re doing the right thing.  
“Maybe we should call Josie? She could surely tell us if…”  
“No!” Lizzie drops the bandages and the disinfectant she had gathered.  
“Lizzie, I know you two just patched things up, but Penelope is not going to come between you two. You have to believe that.”  
“It’s not that… I know I screwed up, but I’m not planning on doing it again.”  
MG narrows his eyes, sporting a suspicious expression.  
“Don’t get me wrong, I still thinks she’s the Dark Lord… but she’s Josie’s Dark Lord, apparently, God help me. So I will do everything in my power to help her. I don’t need to like her to do that. But I’m telling you… we need to understand exactly what’s going on before calling in the cavalry. I won’t put Josie through whatever this is unless I’m sure it’s safe”.  
MG nods, defeated.  
He helps Lizzie pick up the things he dropped and then gently lifts Penelope in his arms, following the blonde girl down in the dungeons.Lizzie opens one of the cells, and signals MG to put fake-Penelope on one of the camp beds. Coincidentally the same Josie was in, less than a week ago.  
“Landon, Kaleb, then you and Josie… and now Peez… These cells have seen more students than any monsters or bad guys… I don’t like it here.”  
After putting the raven-haired girl down, he turns to Lizzie.  
“So how are you planning on helping her? How did your father cure Josie?”  
“He gave her… a vile of blood, but it wasn’t just any blood… I don’t… remember whose it was exactly, but… he said there was another couple of samples in the werewolf bite cures cabinet”.  
“Ok, I will go get one”.  
MG really hopes Lizzie knows what she’s doing. If Josie got wind of it, they were both dead.

Inside the cell, Lizzie examines Penelope up close.  
Her first impression is confirmed, she _knows_ it’s not Penelope, even if she is. She also knows she already met her, but it’s like she can’t remember exactly when or how. Which doesn’t make any sense  
She looks closer at her clothes, the old gray coat has a few patches here and there, the blood stained sweater is a bit loose, at least one size too large. Her face is thinner, her eyes and cheeks looks hollow, and not only for the loss of blood.  
But the strangest thing about her is indeed the tattoo that she can see on the right side of her neck. It reminds her of some sort of native American bird, a thunderbird or a raven.  
She ghosts lightly its lines with the tip of her fingers, it’s beautiful and somehow she can sense sadness in it. She sighs and begins to take off her coat. 

The universe is definitely sending her some signals, less than two weeks ago she was celebrating when she heard her Dad talking to the Devil’s parents… and now she is sticking her neck out to save her life.  
If only Josie could see her now. Well, not exactly _now_ , if she saw her now she would definitely burn her to ashes.  
She is suddenly brought back to reality by soft steps behind her.  
“Hmmm… what are you doing?”  
“Oh, you’re back MG. I’m trying to take these filthy clothes off her, obvs. Did you find a vile?”  
“Yeah, I wasn’t sure what to look for but there was a couple kept in a separate cabinet… with a ‘H. Mikaelson’ tag on them. I figured it was one of those Mikaelson? Even if I don’t know what the “H” should stand for. But if you wanted powerful blood, there’s none more powerful than this”.  
“Perfect, come and help me change her. We can’t leave her in these bloody clothes. Look for some water, I will get something for her to wear. There should be some tracksuit in the gym changing rooms.”  
When they both come back, they pull off her sweater and then her shoes and dirty trousers.  
They clean the last traces of blood and dirt with the clean bandages and then don her the clean Salvatore tracksuit.  
MG gives Lizzie the vile.  
“Ok, let’s do this and see what’s what”.  
MG lifts Penelope’s head up and Lizzie gently opens her mouth and pours the vile content inside it.  
They step outside the cell and lock it.  
“And now we wait.”

* * *

Death sucks, apparently. She doesn’t feel weightless, complete, freed from this mortal coil and all that stuff. She can taste blood in her mouth and all her sadness and all her pain are still crushing her heart. Is this her punishment?  
The only positive thing is that at least her body doesn’t hurt anymore.

“I think she is coming around. Her breathing changed”. 

Penelope opens her eyes. Is she really breathing? Yep, she definitely is.  
She is in a dark room, sort of gloomy, she guesses underground. She tries to move a leg and then an arm.  
She feels strangely fine. Tired, but fine.  
_Fuck._ Did Triad get her?  
When she turns her head she sees what is definitely the inside of a cell. With bars and all. _Great._  
But the walls seem old, not the usually high-tech, hospital-like rooms Triad uses.  
When she slowly sits up, a light turns on. Her eyes struggle to adjust at the sudden change, but then another voice speaks. 

“Look who finally decided to join us.”  
That voice. Penelope’s heart sinks.  
“Fuck, maybe I am dead and this is my personal hell.”  
“I’m afraid not. How are you feeling?” Lizzie deadpans.  
“Like a tank ran me over. But still in one piece apparently. Do I have to thank you for that, or have you finally gave up on your act and decided to sell me to Triad?”  
“Great, your charm is coming back, you are definitely out of danger. Here’s some water.”  
Lizzie walks up to the bars and hands a bottle of water to Penelope, who just stares at it without making any move to take it.  
“Paranoid much?”  
Lizzie takes a sip of water. Close the bottle and throws it next to Penelope.  
“OK, so now let’s cut the bs and tell me who you are and what are you doing here. I’d hate to have to put you down again after all the trouble we went through to heal you.”  
Penelope snorts and emits a short empty laugh. “That’s more like it” She takes a sip of water to wash her mouth and then drinks half the bottle.  
“Who am I? Really? And here I thought I was the one who was just revived”.  
MG finally steps in.  
“Peez how did you know we were under Triad attack, and how did you come back from Belgium in time to intercept them?”  
“Belgium? What are you talking about? And, sorry, who are you again?”  
Lizzie and MG exchange a look.  
“I told you. She’s not Penelope. Even though she is close enough. I was right not to tell _her_.”  
“C’mon... how can she not be her? Maybe she had a concussion or something…” Lizzie just stares at him and MG decides to turn to Penelope again: “So, I’m MG... your friend, don’t you remember me?"  
“MG as in the ‘Moronic Gaoler’?”  
“As in Milton Greasley, c’mon Peez you’re not even tryin’.”  
“Wait, Greasley as in Veronica Greasley?”  
“Yeah, she’s my mom, you should know.”  
“Are you kiddin’ me? You ARE Triad!”  
Penelope reacts so fast, Lizzie has no time to even realize the other witch moved. Luckily for her MG uses his super speed to push her out of Penelope’s blast path.  
“What the hell was that, Peez? Just lay down, you’re not fully recovered” MG is starting to seriously worry now.  
Lizzie untangles her from MG’s grip and screams “You crazy ass bitch!”  
Penelope stares from Lizzie to MG, genuinely surprised.  
“You’re a vampire? Veronica Greasley’s son is a vampire? If this is a sick trick, the laugh is on you. I’m not gonna tell you anything about the Resistance.”  
“What the actual fuck… are you delusional?” Lizzie’s patience, already thin, has just come to an abrupt end. “You think you’re Princess Leia, now? Well, news flesh, my dear Evil Emperor, the Resistance doesn’t exists anymore, now it’s the Republic against the New Order.”  
MG suddenly looks at Lizzie totally enamored.  
“Did you just made a Star Wars reference?”  
“MG, totally not the time. Spit it out Satan-look-alike, who are you really? Why did you assume Penelope’s appearance? And more importantly, why trouble at all if you were to blotch it with a tribal tattoo splattered all over your neck? It’s not exactly subtle, you know?”  
Penelope’s hand jumps up to her neck as a reflex, tracing the lines of the Raven. The situation is not what she expected at all.  
She feels definitely less threatened and all the more confused. Why Lizzie and this MG are her only guards? If this was Triad there should be soldiers, and scientist, trying to put their hands and probes on her.  
So she takes a deep breath and tries to muster the calmest voice possible: “Lizzie, as you very well know, there is a war raging and you are wasting precious time with this farce. So please, explain to me why are you two mocking me like bored high-school kids? What do you want?”  
Lizzie takes a step forward, ready to spit a thing or two right in the face of this all-too-similar Penelope-impersonator, but MG steps in.  
“Lizzie, let me try. How about we start from the beginning. Yes, technically we are students. So the joke’s on you. I can hardly call a war the attack Triad made on the school. Luckily we managed to stop it before it caused too much damage. And I may also say that we both did our fair part in kicking their asses. As for my mother, it was kind of a shock to know she allowed all that to happen, but as you should know, or shouldn’t - since you left us all of a sudden, just saying you were off to Belgium - , everything ended up fine. How about you, what were you doing in the forest, and how did you end up there?”  
Penelope is utterly and totally confused.  
“Why do you keep mentioning Belgium? Why in hell would I go to Belgium? Looks like someone without a crumble of creativity needed an excuse to bail out on you, and just said a random foreign State. I have always been here, planning the attack on Triad with Alaric. We wanted to bring the war to them, to stop being hunted down and killed. But they had already surrounded our refuge, so we ran and we tried to hide in the forest. I don’t know what happened to the others, but since I’m the only one kept here, I must assume the worst… Kaleb was behind me and I saw what happened to him.”  
“Woah, woah, I talked to Kaleb like this afternoon!”  
Lizzie scoffs.“Hellooo? I’m starting to think you are the Triad agent, the one they left behind, who doesn’t know your side lost. You are literally in one of the cells of the Salvatore School. And in a few hours my dad, the headmaster, will be back and he will handle you.”  
Something finally clicks in Penelope’s mind.  
“Wait. Headmaster? This makes no sense, unless…”  
Penelope’s eyes zeroes in on the crest visible on MG’s sweater, and then looks down on the clean clothes she’s wearing: a school sport uniform. Her brow furrows and she looks up again meeting Lizzie’s eyes.  
“Where you telling the truth that day?”  
Lizzie starts to have a bad feeling about this whole situation.  
“What… What are you talking about?”  
“Do you remember the day of Josie’s wake, when you said you came from another reality? You kept screaming about a Genie or something, I just thought it was one of your fits, but it wasn’t. Was it?”  
MG just looks between the sudden exchange between the two, shocked: “Josie’s WHAT? What is she saying?”  
Cold talons grasps Lizzie’s heart, and a shiver goes down her spine. Her mind races, there is something she should know, but she can’t remember. Fear invades every fiber of her body.  
“How should I know? I’m putting up a barrier spell and calling my dad. This is getting out of hand. MG lend me your hand, please.”  
Penelope jumps up as soon as Lizzie steps back.  
“Wait, where’s my coat? Here, look at this.”  
Penelope reaches her coat, on the ground a few feet from her. From the inside pocket she takes out a piece of paper and hands it to them.  
It’s the front page of the Mystic Falls Courier, where full size sketches of Klaus Mikaelson and Caroline Forbes stares back at them under the title: “ENEMIES OF THE STATE”.  
MG just keeps shaking his head “Ok, this is seriously ridiculous. Klaus Mikaleson is alive and a fugitive with your mom?”  
Lizzie is transfixed, her head pounds.  
“I have already seen this… but where?” She looks at Penelope. Blue and green eyes are inspecting each other, trying to decide if they can trust each other.  
They are both standing near the bars, after Penelope passed her the piece of paper.  
Penelope slowly stretches her arms out, Lizzie is scared but seems unable to move. The raven haired girl puts her hands on both side of the blonde's head, who flinches slightly at the contact. Penelope inhale slowly and closes her eyes.  
A flash of images suddenly fills Lizzie’s brain. She, Jed and Kaleb entering a very different version of the Salvatore school, a small crowd gathered around candles at a wake. Lizzie in her father’s arms crying. A small resistance lead by her dad ready to go to war.  
Lizzie opens her eyes, an horrorstruck expression on her face. Penelope is staring back at her, they never shared nothing but disdainful looks with each other, so Lizzie is actually taken aback by the intensity of Penelope’s stare. She feels all its weight, like the raven-haired girl is trying to reach her soul.  
And that is when she understands she can trust her.  
“That… really happened? It was real? But I changed that reality… The wish…”  
And then her brain just clicks, and everything comes back to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's really great finally getting some news of season 2 and seeing the cast again! Also were are the bloopers? I'm dying waiting for them! :D  
> Also I was reeeeally hoping to hear good Posie tides from San Diego CC, but I fear we are going to have a bleak winter ahead. T__T


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here's the second part of the chapter!  
> With the next, the story should start to pick up pace. :)

“Ablah… The Jinnie. She said… Oh, my God… Josie… Josie is in danger.“  
Her breath starts to catch in her throat. She takes a few steps back and curls down on the floor, hugging her knees, and starting rocking back and forth on her feet.  
Penelope feels all the exhaustion of the last week catching up on her. She feels like all her energies have been drained from her. She falls back sitting on the camp bed.  
MG is at a loss for words, he runs by Lizzie’s side, a hand on her back trying to soothe her.  
She is still having problems breathing and tears are falling from her eyes.  
“Just breathe, Lizzie. Josie is fine, remember? Your Dad found a cure for the Malivore-bullet. You two made up, everything is going to be fine”.  
Lizzie slowly gets her breathing under control, but it’s only after several minutes that she manages to speak again to MG.  
“One of the monsters Malivore sent to the school to find the urn, was a Jinnie. Josie and I had just gotten back from Europe and my dad forgot to pick us up at the airport. I was so mad at him that when the Jinnie offered to grant me three, no, a few wishes… I accepted. I wanted him to stop him spending all his time with… other people and ignoring us… But the Jinnie tricked me, in the final reality I was in… there was indeed a war between Triad and supernaturals. And I… I… had a crisis and I…”  
To her surprise Penelope chimes in: “Lizzie, the other Lizzie, had a crisis and was knocked out and couldn’t help Josie… when she was attacked.”  
Lizzie turns her head, a lost look on her face. Penelope locks eyes with her once more, her fingers are on the tattoo on her neck.  
Why was Penelope lying for her?  
Penelope looks at her, than glances at MG and then goes back to Lizzie. A silent understanding passes between the two.  
MG, who missed the exchange between them, just comments: “This is crazy! So what are we going to do now?”  
Penelope scoffs: “We find out how I ended up here and why. And then we fix it. My reality is not worth saving, let me tell you. But I think this one is. And I suspect me being here it’s not a good thing for you.”  
MG blinks: “You’re definitely more cynical than our Peez. But it’s still nice to have you here.”  
After a moment of silence, Penelope asks in an unnatural soft voice.  
“So… is this Josie ok?”  
Lizzie looks up and nods, Penelope averts her eyes and just look down on her hands.  
“That’s all I needed to hear”.

* * *

“So… goodnight then, I’ll see you first thing tomorrow.” MG waves and leaves them outside Penelope’s room.  
Now it’s just the two of them.  
“Uhm, so here’s some covers and stuff… let me know if you need anything else”.  
Penelope looks around. “I think the last time I slept without a crossbow under the pillow… well, I don’t even remember the last time I had a pillow, so that’s how long ago it was. I think I will be more than fine”.  
“Why did you lie to MG… about how Josie… I mean...”  
“I will never forgive Lizzie for what she did… But you are not her. And, besides, there is not a moment that I don’t think I should have been there when it happened. So I know what I am talking about when assigning faults and guilt. A part from that, I don’t think MG needed to know what happened in my world”.  
“Thank you… I guess…”  
Lizzie’s too tired to even begin to think about what all of this means. So she decides a bit of sleep it’s the only solution for the moment.  
“So... you can spend the night here, but I think it’s best if we find another accommodation for you for the time being…”  
“Oh, so the other Penelope is coming back? You know I didn’t buy that Belgium bs.”  
“Yeah, well… No, she’s not coming back actually. At least not for the moment. And I am afraid the Belgium thing is very much real in this Universe. I heard my dad speak to your... her parents, basically her mom got a job there.”  
“Wait… what? And I agreed to go along? I mean she… Without even finishing the year? And isn’t this a boarding school for fuck sake?!”  
“Well, she sort of didn’t have a reason to stay?”  
Penelope stares blankly at her.  
“You literally said to me Josie was ok like 5 minutes ago.”  
“Yeah, well… you two kind of broke up here, so…”  
Lizzie stops in her tracks because Penelope looks like she’s been hit by a truck.  
“I’m sorry, what?”  
“I mean, not you… those two broke up… “You”… “her”… this is very confusing, we need to find a way around it. But yeah _this_ Penelope and _this_ Josie broke up.”  
Penelope looks like she just saw a puppy get shot.  
“Which is why you can’t stay here after tonight…. Josie tends to spend a lot of time in here, even if she thinks I don’t know.”  
The raven-haired girl shakes her head, trying to pull herself together.  
“Why would she spend time here?”  
“You know… pining over you?”  
“Why would she pine over me if she broke up with me?”  
It’s Lizzie’s time to blink.  
“What?”  
“Josie, why spend time in my other self room if she broke up with her?”  
“No… because… it’s you who broke up with her.”  
“Come again?”  
“Yeah, well, the other Penelope…”  
Penelope tries to laugh at that, but what comes out of her mouth sounds more like a choking sound.  
“You are trying to tell me that the other me from this perfect Universe with no war, a stable Lizzie, and everybody going on their merry way to school… broke up with Josie and left her of her own accord?”  
“Y-Yeah… well, you broke up with her several months ago. Then the other day you told her you loved her, and then you left.”  
Penelope’s brain seems to have short-circuited. Which is something quite unique to behold.  
So Lizzie promptly goes on saying: “Even though there are very valid mitigating circumstances that I am the least qualified person to expose and…”  
“Speak. Now.”  
“So basically, when you and Josie started dating… you know, you being you… and her being her…  
“Yes?”  
“And me being me… well, it’s not a surprise we didn’t get along. So Josie…”  
“Divided herself between the two of us, completely annihilating herself… until she reached the breaking point and had to face the fact that she could not put everyone else’s interests before her own”.  
“Oh, so in your world too, eh? Well, here, before she realized that, you found out about the Merge reading the entries on my father’s journal after you gifted enchanted pens to everybody for Christmas and you apparently decided that dumping her was a clever plan to make her become her own person. Unfortunately, you kept that piece of information for yourself, so from where everyone else stood, you broke her heart, which just triggered me into actually wanting to murder you.” Lizzie is just blabbing now and can’t seem to stop herself. “And then you started tormenting me on an whole new level, because apparently I was the big enemy of your relationship - which none of you two had the guts to ever tell me in my face when you were dating – and of Josie’s stepping into the light – which is just one way of seeing things, because in a codependent relationship there are still two people, and she always liked to hide behind me.”  
Penelope’s jaw kept dropping during all this ramble, but at that last sentence the raven haired witch seems to regain control of her body, she jumps up and scoffs.  
Lizzie is suddenly aware that she was monologuing, maybe more to herself than to her audience, so she clears her throat and tries to remedy.  
“But now we totally cleared that up. We are working on it and we are doing good progress”  
“So did my… your Penelope’s plan work?”  
“Well, one time she kissed MG in front of Josie and so the little pyromaniac burned her hair down, which was great. And I think you could call it progress. Then Penelope saved her when she was buried alive, and then kissed her, and she kissed her back. But then Josie ignored her. Then Penelope gave her a note saying she loved her but she was going to Belgium - which Josie didn’t read - then they kissed again under the influence of mind controlling slugs and finally at the Mystic Falls Pageant Josie read the note and Penelope told her she loved her before leaving, they kissed and so her heart broke again... Sorry, I'm blabbing again...”  
Lizzie thinks she literally just managed to break Penelope. It’s only after what feels an endless time that Penelope is able to articulate:  
“You know, I knew I was so lucky to have her. And whenever I told her that, time and time again, she just laughed and told me that there wasn’t a world or a time where we weren’t together. Funny, no? But I always knew I was so lucky that she chose me, I would have ended up pretty bad if I hadn’t met her… so to think that in another world _I_ was the one who actually left her is just something I can’t comprehend.”  
“Well, I did call you the Dark Lord for a reason.” Lizzie tries to lighten the atmosphere.  
“Don’t get too worked up over it, you can’t just catch up overnight with those two idiots… But if it is of any comfort to you, MG and I are convinced that the drama isn’t finished yet. I mean, he is rooting for it, while I’ve just given up hope. Maybe you can talk to MG tomorrow, I think he is actually in contact with you… I mean her. Seriously, we need to find a solution for that.”  
“You can just call me Satan, I guess I’m used to it” Penelope answered with a small smile that didn’t managed to reach her eyes. Still she tried.  
“You know what? I think you’ll be Penelope, so I can start getting used to it… without the actual Satan knowing it. So good night Penelope”.  
The raven-haired girl just smirks at that, and for the first time there’s something warm in the deep of her green eyes.  
“Fine with me. Good night, Lizzie”.  
“Sleep on it, we will try to figure things out tomorrow”.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I finally managed to get some work done!  
> Thanks for those who pocked me after all these months. It actually helped! XD  
> I kinda proof-read this but not that thoroughly, so sorry in advance for all the tense inconsistencies and convoluted phrasing.

“When did you say your father was gonna be back?” Penelope asks amongst her piles of books.  
“He should have arrived this morning”.  
Lizzie is not even pretending to read anymore. Her feet are on the table and she stares at the ceiling while she leans on the back legs of her chair with a pencil balanced between her upper lip and her nose.  
They had looked for a spell to call up a Jinnie all morning and a good part of the afternoon, but without success. Jinnies were still considered myth, so even if Ablah technically never met Malivore, thanks to Lizzie’s wish, her magic could not bring back the memories of her kind that he consumed. So all they found was just mentions of mythical creatures similar to genies, but nothing on how contacting them or conjuring them.  
“Won’t Josie get suspicious if you stay all day in an empty room?”  
They are in a very spacious and empty room on the school last floor, the same of the twins. Lizzie said that she didn’t even remember who its occupant was, probably just one of the other witches that cut the year short after Triad’s attack… They didn’t even bother to bring with them their easel and their half begun painting on it in their hurry to leave…  
“We are both looking for more information on the Merge, dad lets us read some of his books. The ‘harmless ones’, we think, they don’t really give anything away. He is still trying to soften the blow… So we just spend time researching stuff and we prefer to avoid the library when it’s too crowded in case there are prying eyes… You know, we haven’t told anyone about the Merge.”  
Lizzie answers absentmindedly, still looking at the ceiling.  
“And how’s that going?”  
“The main problem with all that mess is that we know so little about the Gemini Coven, we decided it is more useful if for the moment me and Josie just try to learn as much as we can on their history. When my mom gets back at the end of next week, we’re going to have a proper talk. All together. So for the moment we are just splitting up to cover more material. I just told her I was tired of dad’s office and that I wanted to go through something we might have missed in other books. And since we are trying to spend more time on our own… she didn’t question it. It’s fine.”  
“You know… In my world you and Josie found out about the merge from a passing witch who stayed for a while at the rescue house… I don’t know if this person exists in this reality, but if that’s the case, there is at least one person who knows about it beside your parents.”  
“Then pass the information to my mother, she is trying to locate anyone who might have some insight on the matter. But if the Mikaelsons, who were here since the beginning of fucking time, don’t have any information… I doubt anyone can add something useful about the rituals of my Coven.”  
Lizzie exhales and the pen falls off from her upper lip, so she let her chair fall back in place with a loud thud on the floor.  
“Let’s focus on something we might be able to solve, for a change. The sooner we contact this Ablah, the better”.  
Penelope observes Lizzie closely. She looks somewhat skittish and she is surprised to see her more preoccupied by a random genie than a curse that might end hers or her twin’s life by the age of 22.  
She can’t be sure, but she senses some hidden fear in Lizzie’s words.  
“Ehi, are you sure you’re ok? That Jinnie can’t harm you anymore, you outsmarted her also managing to get her what she wanted. I’m sure if we play our cards right, she might even want to help us for free”.  
Lizzie looks at her but is not able to hold her gaze.  
“It’s not that… I just… There’s something she said that I can’t shake…”  
Lizzie retrieves the pen from the floor and plays nervously with it…  
“What was it exactly?”  
“Ok, so before leaving your world, the Jinnie told me that I wouldn’t remember anything, but then…”

Lizzie is suddenly interrupted by MG’s head appearing in the crack of the door.  
“Josie is coming back from her walk outside, just thought to give you two the heads-up”.  
Penelope is still waiting for Lizzie to elaborate, but the blonde shakes her head as if trying to get rid of a bad dream.  
“Did I interrupt something?” MG is looking quizzically between the two.  
“Don’t be ridiculous, MG.” Lizzie springs up on her feet and gathers the books on the table, “Thanks for watching over Josie. Well, I’ll leave you two, have fun, I’m gonna meet her half way… and find out why my dad isn’t back already”.

Penelope and MG watch her leave and then look at each other.  
“Is she ok?”  
“I was about to find out when someone decided to interrupt us.”  
“Well, sorry if I wanted to avoid WWIII aka Josie walking in on you two exchanging pleasantries. All these tension and drama will kill me one of these days.”  
“Don’t you have like monsters coming and going every week? You should be used to it by now. And by the way, we weren’t exchanging pleasantries.”  
“Well, actually, Dr. Saltzman usually takes care of those, with Mr. Williams’s help and…” MG just stops mid-phrase.  
“And?”  
“I was gonna say and a student, but no, wait, he would never do that… I mean, well, he has some supernatural help of course, but he doesn’t want us students to get involved. He might asks us vampire for the occasional compelling but that’s it. Isn’t it?”  
“Hey, don’t look at me. My Alaric Saltzman thought me to build magic Molotovs”.  
“Cool”.

* * *

Josie spent her morning reading old books in a corner of the almost empty library, trying to learn about old covens and their rituals. But now she feels restless and after reading the same page over and over again without a single word sticking to her, she decides to abandon her current task and take a long walk to clear her mind.

So now she is walking near the edges of the forest, trying to make a list of practical things, day-to-day tasks and goals, as Ms. Tig suggested, that she can focus on, so she can avoid being crushed under the weight of things too big to handle and to which there is no immediate solution. That is easier said than done, with school at an end, she doesn’t even have homework and tests to keep her occupied, so things like the merge, her ex-girlfriend heartbreaking confession of love and departure, this strange void that she feels ever since recovering from the shot wound, are all elephants that are taking over her mind’s room.

She wants to get in touch with Penelope so badly, just to know how she’s doing in Belgium, but she also can’t bring herself to text her or - even worse - dial her number. That’s why she wrote her that letter. Actually it was more something she needed to write down for herself, to try and give words to her unspoken feelings and pain. To let free some of the things she was bottling up. Should she actually send the letter? She knows she left Penelope go without saying anything. And she feels she owes her an entire ocean of words… but at the same time, her ex had been final. She couldn’t bear to stand by Josie anymore. And even if Josie now understands why she did everything she did, and Josie wants to work hard and change for the better, it’s too late to get her back. She should have acted before Penelope left, before everything changed. Josie feels it was unfair, she was undergoing a test that no one told her about. Of course she would have acted differently if she knew. But that was the point Penelope was trying to make. Now that the cat is out of the bag though, the rules of the game are shifting. Now it’s not a matter of putting herself first, now it’s a matter of life and death. Hers or Lizzie’s, so now the thing they had to work on was stopping it, preventing it. Because Josie will not go through with it. It’s not a matter of who will win, she simply doesn’t want to play.  
That’s why Penelope didn’t tell her right away, she knew Josie would never accept these conditions, so when the curtain finally fell the only thing she could do was leave… and Josie can’t hold it against her. She can’t ask her to come back to her. Not until her life is on stand-by. Not until everything she does becomes relevant only if it will help stopping the merge.  
She has a long way ahead of her… she will improve herself, learn, mature. But she will fully benefit from her achievements after hers and Lizzie’s 22nd birthday.

She had long talks with Lizzie about the merge part of the problem, but she couldn’t talk to her about Penelope. Not the way she wanted to. She talked with MG about the Penelope part of the problem, but she had to avoid the merge. So basically she cant’t speak openly with anybody. And she misses having someone she can talk to… and the void she feels becomes more evident every passing day.  
She realizes she’s spiraling again, so she tries to follow Ms. Tig advise, she needs to find a simple task to keep her mind occupied… baking? She already engulfed the kitchen with cupcakes two days before. Sparring? She needs someone to train with and she isn’t really in the mood. Study? She doesn’t have any homework left.  
Besides she really wants to do something that can at least slightly poke the elephants in her mind. Merge study? She just ran away from it… and beside what real progress she could actually make? Which only leave one elephant. One very and disturbingly pretty elephant with the most amazing green eyes. 

Without even realizing it, her hand goes into her back pocket and comes out holding her phone.  
She scrolls through her contacts and stares at Penelope’s name bright on her screen. Her thumb ventures forward... If she could just hear her voice for a moment… Would she even pick up?  
She takes a deep breath, and is about to put her phone back in her pocket when it starts ringing.

* * *

“Hey, Jo, is everything ok?”  
Lizzie stares at Josie, trying to read her mood. She’s always a bit off these days, but it’s getting harder for her to decipher her twins thoughts.  
“Lizzie, don’t get mad. I got a call from dad. They found Rafael, but he is still stuck in his wolf form and can’t transform back. So he convinced Ms. Tig to postpone her departure for a few days until they figure things out.”  
“Well, that’s good news, why would I get mad? This mean he and Dorian are coming back. Ms. Tig too.”  
“Well, actually Triad… well, MG’s mom decided she wanted to help. So it’s her men that found Rafael and now they’re offering to treat him in their facility under dad supervision. Dad says they’re doing it to show us they are good now and they want to help, and even if he thinks this is promising, he just wants to be sure and go there prepared. So long story short… he’s going over there. And Dorian and Ms. Tig are going too. There were only a few days left before summer vacation. So I guess we should be happy we gained a few extra free days”. Josie says trying to lighten up the mood, but she doesn’t really put any effort into it.  
Lizzie curses in her head. Of course her dad would bail on them at this critical time.  
“Great, just great. And now what I’m gonna do with the she-dev…”  
Josie arcs her brow.  
“With the sheee… with the shindig!”  
“The what?”  
“You know… the shindig, the party… the end of school party. A party but like… an official version, with dad’s permission... to mark the end of the school year. I told him we needed a good final party to lift our spirits a bit after all that happened.”  
Josie narrows her eyes.  
“And how will you sell it to him?”  
“You know, I might tell him that it would leave a good impression on the students… you know, with the impending Honor Council vote…” She was actually thinking about asking her dad for something along those lines, so it wasn’t actually a lie.  
“Well you could try talking to him in a few days, there is still time.”  
Lizzie looks at the papers in Josie’s arms.  
“What’s all that stuff?”  
“Oh, dad notes and Dorian records on all the monsters that visited the school because of Malivore. They are still unsure on what went down at the Triad facility. So they will compare notes with Triad now that they are willing to share their insight. Dad asked me to gather everything and send it to him.”  
“All the monsters that that visited school? Well, let me help you.”

* * *

“You’re doing it again”  
“I know, sorry, I don’t want to stare, but it’s uncanny… You’re like the Marvel multiverse incarnate”  
“I’ve been called worst thing incarnate from Lizzie, I guess.”  
“No, I mean, seriously. This is a whole other take on the multiverse world, there’s not only different timelines, but also different worlds because of Magic… it’s something Doctor Strange level!”  
“Is this the part where I say you’re a nerd and we go back to finding a way to contact the Jinnie?”  
“Or, this could be the part where you find out you’re here for a reason… when 2014 Gamora switches timeline she saves Quill’s life”.  
“That wasn’t a game changer and they only did it so she could star in the next 5 Guardians of the Galaxy movies. I’m not here to take your Penelope’s place while she eats waffles in Belgium”.  
“You don’t have to be so analytical, you know? Take Nebula then!”  
“The 2014 Nebula was evil, so the actual Nebula had to kill her younger self. What are you suggesting here? ”  
MG jumps up from his chair and says in one breath: “Scott Lang spent 5 years in the Quantum Realm, but only experienced it as 5 hours, he enabled the Avengers to come up with the idea of time travelling back to retrieve the Infinity Stones!”.  
Penelope rolls her eyes. “He didn’t change reality. And oh my God stop referencing that movie, it has more plot holes than a piece of French cheese. Just drop it and go with a Prisoner of Azkaban theory, it’s the superior universe and time travel actually works there”.  
“You said the exact same thing when we discussed the Avenger movies in this AU, but this time I’m gonna win! Your existence proves my point, Harry Potter only had on time line, Harry never altered it because it was the same timeline all along, he already changed it before he knew he did it. Here we are talking about multiple coexisting realities! It’s a Marvel multiverse! If you met yourself in this reality it wouldn’t be a paradox, because you’re different people… But you’re also the same people, it’s just that external events took different turns in your world and in mine. But then different experiences result in different characters development, so who knows? Imagine the infinite possibilities!”.  
“I lost you there buddy”.  
MG scoffs and plops back on the chair, trying to focus.  
“Well, all I’m trying to say it’s that maybe there’s a reason for you to be here. You might not be trouble for us, maybe you’re a mean for us to correct some loophole or something that already happened.”  
“Ok, this is an interesting concept, but it’s actually totally useless because we don’t have a way to find out unless we contact the Jinnie. So get back to your reading”.  
MG opened his mouth to counter back but was abruptly interrupted by the loud bang of the door being opened with a kick and a triumphant Lizzie Saltzman with a wide grin on her face.

“Guys, I found a way to contact Ablah!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say that I have every intention of finishing this fic, but unfortuntely I am an occasional amateur writer. So the updates will be very much irregular, I'm very sorry :(( But hopefully not as bad as this one!  
> On the bright side I have the story already outlined, so worst case scenario if I don't manage to finish this: I will publish the short draft. So a least you will know the ending. ;) 
> 
> Fun fact, while I was reviewing this, my sister went down memory lane and put this video on the tv:  
> [Michelle Branch - Goofbye to you (Buffy live version)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saxUkx3gpNA)  
> So even if I hadn't this in mind when I wrote it, I think it fits perfectly the scene where Josie thinks about Penelope. And it works both ways, it can be either Josie's or Pen's POV.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here comes the rainy days, and suddenly I can't stop typing... enjoy! :P

“It’s not gonna work just because you want it to, blondie”  
“Oh, so we are going back to calling names, Dark Lord?”  
“Can you two please focus? I lost count on how many variations of this summoning spell you’ve tried. You’re clearly missing something”.

They are all sitting on the rug in the middle of the room, the floor around them littered with candles, jars, herbs, scrolls of parchment, and books. All the excitement gone after 2 hours and a half of failed attempts and no Jinnie remotely in sight.

Lizzie scoffs and pushes herself back to her feet, she grabs her laptop and lays down on the empty bed looking at the screen. Penelope stretches her legs and pulls out the joint she had placed behind her ear earlier. She snaps her fingers and lights it and after the first few drags, she offers it to MG.  
The boy smiles and sits next to her.  
He reaches out for the joint but before taking it, he looks playfully at the raven haired witch: “No sex herbs, right?”  
“Uh, so I have my secret recipe here too? Unfortunately I left my special supply under a floor board back in my AU… you know with Triad all around trying to exterminate us, I had to prioritize”.  
“Yeah, I get that”. He takes a long drag.  
“But just because it’s you I might have used my last back-up stash.”  
MG coughs violently and gives the joint back to Penelope, who laughs and lays down on the floor. He then proceeds to open the window to let the smoke out and walks over to Lizzie.  
The blonde twin is checking charts on her computer and googling stuff on the internet.  
“Can you stop flirting with the alternate blair witch?”  
MG scratches his back and rapidly changes the subject.  
“You know, you would work faster if you just installed an ad-blocker like I told you months ago. Just give it to me it will take 2 seconds”  
“MG… shut up. I’m trying to understand what the hell is a gluon.”  
Penelope chuckles from the floor.  
“Those notes were written by scientists, not witches, how many times do I have to tell you? You can’t just translate it into a spell.”  
Lizzie's eyes never leaves the screen as she answers.  
“When I told you my idea, you said and I quote ‘This is brilliant Lizzie, you’re a genius’”.  
Penelope straightens up.  
“Hey, Einstein, you sold it as a done deal. And next time you quote me, do it correctly, I said ‘if we really manage to pull this off, you might actually be a genius’.”  
“Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.”  
Lizzie scribbles something down on her notebook and resumes her position on the floor, next to the candles.  
“I’m sorry this is not as easy as summoning your Death Eaters, but you know, you can’t just snap your fingers and expect it to work”.  
Penelope smirks,  puts out the finished joint inside a coffee mug and sits back in front of Lizzie.  
“I love the smell of unforgivable curses in the afternoon, should I oblige you?”  
MG rolls his eyes, takes a few popcorn from the bowl near his feet and looks at the notes Lizzie is checking.  
She proceeds to explain. “Ok, so if I understand this correctly, we need to concentrate only on this part of the chart. Do you see all these spikes and colors? This is definitely the energy signature of the Jinnie.”  
In between popcorn MG points out “We already knew that, It’s recorded on the date you and Josie came back from Europe. But according to your last wish, the Jinnie was never inside Malivore”.  
“Yes, Smurfette loopholed her way into never meeting him, but as you kindly nerd-blabbed us to death, this is not a regular timeline. She did not actually go back in time, she just magically canceled their meeting. So technically she was still spitted out from that clay jar that day and according to Quantum chromodynamics we just need to consider this portion of the data here.”  
“You’re so hot when you speak nerd, you know that?”  
Lizzie blushes at the sudden comment and looks back to her notes a little too intently.  
Penelope stifle her laugh, and mouths ‘sex herbs’, winking and giving MG a finger gun.  
He glares at her. “I mean... what I wanted to say… when did you take a master in physics?”  
“I’m just good at googling stuff.” Lizzie mumbles, still pretending to check her notes.  
“Well you did convince Triad scientists to give you all this data…”  
“They just shared it with my dad to try and understand what happened to Malivore. I just happen to know the password to his iCloud account.”  
“Brilliant”.  
Lizzie ventures to lift up her gaze and stare into MG's dopey eyes.  
“Yeah, yeah, you were smooth I grant you that” Penelope unceremoniously interrupts, “but even if you narrow down that energy thingy, you still need to compare it to others creatures signatures, and then hope that twitching their summoning spell will work..  Which means, there are still infinite possible combinations! How do you expect on covering them all?”  
Lizzie says sternly “Patience is the virtue of the strong”  
Penelope looks at her amused “To err is human, but to persist in error is diabolical”.  
“That is your area of expertise, Satan. Carpe diem”.  
“Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus” Penelope fires back mimicking her serious tone.  
“What?”  
“Hogwarts motto”  
MG giggles.  
“I can’t believe you decided that getting stoned was a good idea”  
Penelope opens her mouth to make a comment, but MG sobers up enough to stop her.  
“Ok, guys, I know you love your bitchy banter, and you live for it… But it’s not helping. Let’s get back to work, we seriously need to figure something out by the end of this century. Unlike me, you’re not getting any younger.”  
“Said the little vampire to the powerful witches who turned him into a frog” MG feels shivers down its spine, under suddenly scrutinizing green eyes.  
“Yes, why don’t you crawl back to Transylvania and let us work?”  
“Woah, woah, you too Lizzie? I’m feeling attacked here. Don’t use me as punching bag, it’s bad enough standing in your crossfire. Besides, I’m just trying to help”.  
“Well, talk less, help more” the blonde cuts him short.  
“You don’t let me do anything!”  
“Do you have magical powers that can contribute to the spell? No. So shut up”. Lizzie starts gathering herbs on a silver plate.  
“Technically, neither do you. That’s why you’ve been siphoning from him this whole time” Penelope says, with a cat-like glint in her eyes.  
“Are you suggesting I should siphon from you instead and get sucked into the dark side?”  
“No, I’m suggesting you…”  
“Ok, ok, stop right there. You’re having too much fun with this. How about I go to the kitchen and grab something to eat so we can chill a bit?”  
“Yes, do that please. Before I tie You-Know-Who’s tongue with a spell”  
MG rolls his eyes. “Did you even hear the chill part?”  
“And how do you plan on doing that? You’d need magic and you clearly don’t want to come to the dark side”. The raven-haired witch underlines with air quotes.  
“Please, everything in this school holds magic, I just need to grab a sock and you’d be silenced.” Lizzie replies with her infamous sideways glare.  
“Uh, so you just go around grabbing socks between classes? How kinky of you.”  
“And here comes the sex jokes, please stop, I don’t wanna catch any STDs from you”  
“C’mon guys, drop it, or I will use my socks to silence both of you”.  
“Afraid of a little action?”  
“I don’t do little, if you must know”  
“Oh, I definitely must, tell me more”  
MG shakes his head and exhales, “Sometimes I wish my friends actually paid attention to me”.  
“Perv”  
“Sock fetishist”  
“Maniac”  
“Starfish”  
“Evil bitch”  
“Bleach bitch”  
“Penelope Pig Snout”  
Penelope pulls off a sock and throws it to Lizzie “Here, Dobby, you’re free!”  
“Guys…”  
“Obnoxious schemer with delusions of grandeur"  
“Self-absorbed asshat with a soccer-mom complex”  
“Fuck you”  
“You wish”  
“GUYS!!!”  
“WHAT?!” They say in unison…  
“Behind you!”

“Well, well, well… this is fun, girls”.

They both turn their heads and see a really amused Jinnie sitting on the dresser at the opposite side of the room

* * *

“You answered our call!”  
“Actually, no, I answered his.”  
“My call?”  
“I’m here to grant you your wishes!”  
MG looks like a deer caught in heads-light.  
Penelope burst out laughing.  
Lizzie turns her head and throws daggers at her.  
“Maybe it’s time I siphoned you to death”  
“I can’t wait to feel your touch, Saltzy.”  
“Don’t kill each other please!” MG stands in the middle of them and interrupts their glaring contest.  
Ablah gracefully jumps down and comes closer to the trio.  
“Mmm, I sense there is dear need of my expertise… maybe you want to wish something about it?”  
“NO” the three of them scream in unison.

Ablah playful stare grows cold.  
“I don’t like being mocked, why did you call me if you don’t need me?”  
“I remembered everything!” Lizzie blurts out.  
“What?”  
“Your name is Ablah”.  
“You remember my name? How nice of you.” the Jinnie says sarcastically.  
“It should not be possible ‘cause we actually never met, remember?”  
Ablah narrows her eyes and stares at Lizzie thoughtful… she snaps her fingers and for a moment they’re afraid she will just vanish. But in the blink of an eye, they’re all teleported in the twins room.  
“Interesting… I actually granted you a wish right here, yes… And then another…” She holds up her hand to snap her fingers again, but Lizzie jumps forward and stops her.  
“Yes, you granted me other 3 actually. Please don’t mix up realities further, It’s already a mess…”  
“Your last wish should have set the course straight, what happened?”  
Penelope, who looks to have sobered up a bit, steps forward.  
“ _I_ happened. And we want to find out why, and how to fix it.”  
“And who might you be?”  
“I came from Lizzie’s third wish. So please, explain us what am I doing here?”  
“I see, this is very interesting… “  
“Do you care to elaborate?”  
“I believe that when your little friend stopped Malivore, she didn’t actually defeat it. Sha was cast in its desolate dimension and her void needed to be filled. Nature always finds a balance, so I guess the next best thing was you…” She looks curiously at Penelope, who instinctively takes a step back.  
Lizzie suddenly interrupts them. “What little friend?”  
“You’re tribrid friend, weren't you summoning me from her room before? Oh well, of course you don’t remember her, she got sucked up by Malivore".  
MG and Lizzie stare blankly at each other.  
Penelope frowns. “Wasn’t she the one you wanted to cancel from your life, which resulted in you wishing she was never born thus entering my reality?”  
“And how would you know that?”  
Penelope looks at her. “I overheard you talk to your dad in my dimension”.  
Lizzie scrunches up her face trying to focus.  
The Jinnie looks between the two. “Oh so this also has become a reality without Hope Mikaelson… Well then, there’s your connection” she says matter-of-factly.  
“Wait, wait… Hope…. Mikaelson? As in.. Mikaelson? The original-immortal-and-all-that-shenanigans Mikaelson family?”  
“Hope Mikaleson, yes. Well, I hate to say it, but Malivore’s magic runs deeper than my own. I simply work intertwining facets of different realities and possibilities. Malivore devours everything instead… So you managed to get your memories back from my little spell? Good for you. But good luck retrieving your friend’s memories from Malivore’s pit.”  
MG suddenly grabs Lizzies arms.“The vile of blood… 'H' Mikaelson!! It must have been hers… there are no Mikaelsons whose name starts with an ‘H’”.  
Ablah moves her head approvingly, “Yes. Malivore is not as thorough as me, he doesn’t bend or change the reality. Well, he doesn’t need to. The physical evidence he leaves behind become irrelevant without memories”.  
“So he can’t cancel the traces someone leaves behind?” Lizzie slowyly says.  
MG has a sudden realization. “So why her room was empty? Someone must have done it on purpose!”  
“How can we get her and our memories back?” the blonde eagerly steps forward.  
“Well, magic is a game of balance, why do you think…”

“Shhh!”  
MG shushes them and turns his head to the door.  
“Someone's coming!”  
“No one uses this room, and now we know why…” starts Penelope.  
“We are not in Hope’s room anymore, remember?”  
Penelope scrunches her eyebrows.  
Lizzie looks pointedly at her and then at Abla, and makes the snapping finger gesture.  
“Oh, so that really happened, I thought it was the marijuana”  
Lizzie facepalms.  
“Wait, so whose room is thi…”  
MG silent screams “Too late, hide!”  
The door handle bends down.  
Lizzie grabs Penelope’s hand, a soft red glow suddenly radiating from it, and stretches her arm towards the door.

“Lizzie, why the door is locked? Are you ok?”  
“Yes, Josie, just one sec!”

They all look at each other.

“Well, fuck.”


End file.
